EU Permanent Representatives are gearing up to examine an extremely difficult legislative dossier involved in the directive on the work life balance directive at its meeting on Wednesday 13 June in view of preparing the Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO).
According to several sources, the national delegations are shifting towards much greater flexibility in the proposals put forward by the European Commission with regard to transferability between mother and father of parental leave, remuneration modalities and holiday periods.
With regard to parental leave, the member states are looking at bringing up the non-transferable parental leave period up to two months as opposed to the four months proposed by the European Commission.
The member states would also like to provide more room for manoeuvre with regard to remuneration, which would not necessarily be linked to sickness pay, as suggested by the Commission but to an “adequate” level, left to the discretion of the member states.
Holiday periods for carers could become much more flexible as well and the Commission proposal for a five day period a year may also be scrapped entirely.
Another novelty envisaged includes the introduction of a “bridging clause”. For the member states that have national legislation that goes further than the modalities in European legislation for certain kinds of holiday, a derogation could be granted.
One diplomatic source explained to us that the primary objective is to have a range of different kinds of holiday (maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, leave for carers) within the EU28, whilst taking into account the significant variety of national legislation in this area, in order to facilitate negotiations and therefore obtain a general approach during the next EPSCO Council on 21 June next.
This is because, according to another source, there is a very real fear that representatives will not be able to reach an agreement during the COREPER meeting on Wednesday. According to our source, “If they only agree on a progress report for the negotiations with ministers, then the text is dead and buried”. This source also considers that the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU has little appetite for pushing forward with this legislative text.
The source added that “two worlds are going to clash with each other” in the context of the inter-institutional negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament. MEPs were effectively moving towards enhancing the European Commission proposals by introducing, for example, remuneration during the holidays of 80% of gross wages (see EUROPE 12020, 12032).
COREPER on 13 June will tackle many legislative dossiers in the social domain that are relatively uncontroversial. The Permanent Representatives are expected to give the green light to a general approach for the regulation on the coordination of social security systems (Regulation 883/04) and another for the directive on transparent and predictable working conditions. They will also provide a progress report on the European Labour Authority. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)